Today humanity confronts multiple challenges that seem to defy all current efforts to resolve them. At the same time the world possesses unprecedented resources and organizational capabilities more than sufficient to promote peace, prosperity, and full employment on a sustainable basis. One of the main limiting factors has been the piecemeal approach that fails to address common underlying issues. The Academy is now in the process of constituting an international consortium of organizations to formulate a New Paradigm for Human Development addressing all the major challenges confronting humanity today and encompassing insights related to human welfare and equitable development, economy and ecology, governance and international law, peace and security. Last year WAAS conducted conferences on the New Paradigm at the UN in Geneva, Library of Alexandria, Berkeley, ICTP Trieste,Washington DC & Ottawa. The next step was to convene a preparatory meeting in Baku on April 30 & May 1, immediately following conclusion of the conference on Shared Societies which was jointly organized by Club of Madrid and the Nizami Ganjavi International Center of Azerbaijan, two of the partner organizations participating in the New Paradigm project. This meeting will prepare the ground for a major international conference at Baku on this theme during the first week of November 2014. Current problems have been around in one form or another for a century or more and the world is sufficiently familiar with them. Solutions are possible, but are missed for one reason or another. The piecemeal approach referred to above is one of several reasons for past failures. It is our hope that by pooling our efforts, we may be able to achieve a more comprehensive and integrated approach to global progress and take a meaningful first step toward achieving the critical mass needed to provide intellectual leadership that leads to action. The April 30 prepcom is an opportunity to engage one another and decide on the most effective form of collaboration for the Nov 2014 conference and possibly beyond.

Agenda

APRIL 30

8:30 am to 9:30 am

New Paradigm ConsortiumRationale for a collective effort which encompasses multiple organizations, sectoral challenges, and perspectives

The current socio-economic-political paradigm is unsustainable. It is destroying natural, human and social capitals. A change of course is essential. The call to change the current paradigm was initiated by Aurelio Peccei and the founding of the Club of Rome more than 40 years ago. It is now accepted by many leading institutions.

On April 30, 2014, the World Academy together with the Nizami Ganjavi International Center(NGIC) organized a meeting in Baku of organizations working on solutions to the current global crisis in order to explore the possibility of forging a consortium of organizations to pool their complementary capabilities in a collaborative endeavor. In addition to WAAS and NGIC, the meeting included representatives of Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, Club of Madrid, Club of Rome, European Leadership Network, European Movement International, Future World Foundation, Green Cross International, Library of Alexandria, Partnership for Change, Pugwash and the World University Consortium. Other organizations may also be invited to join this endeavor.

This meeting follows six other WAAS conferences on the need for a New Paradigm in Human Development conducted over the past 15 months in Trieste, Geneva, Alexandria, Washington, Ottawa and Podgorica and was followed by the Brasilia meeting in May 2014.

The Club of Rome organized several conferences and actions, notably “Change the Course” on the anniversary of the Titanic disaster and a recent meeting in Castell de Castellet, Spain.

All analyses clearly demonstrate the need for a major paradigm change. The change has to encompass social, economic and political spheres. It has to be holistic. All aspects have to be approached simultaneously and promptly, and should be human-centered. A new paradigm maintains and preserves all valid aspects of the existing paradigm in the domain of their validity. These conclusions have been reaffirmed by participants at the Baku meeting.

Participants at the Baku meeting unanimously stressed their readiness to continue to work together, forming a consortium/alliance of individuals and organizations (in case of organizations their respective leadership has to approve such an alliance) where each organization through its uniqueness and specialty will organize studies, research and activities aimed at formulating new paradigm and developing a strategy of achieving new socio-economic-political paradigm.

Stakeholders will be actively involved in this strategic change process and contribute to the betterment of their local and national communities, to a renaissance of scientific and educational excellence and to fulfill their core values and mission.

Following the Baku meeting on the New Paradigm Consortium, I would like to share some afterthoughts that hopefully can bring us closer to an understanding of the challenges and difficulties involved in our collaborative effort to formulate a New Paradigm of Human Development.

Project Mission

First, we need to define what we mean by the term ‘New Paradigm of Human Development’. Are we concerned exclusively with the resource limitations of the current economic model, “the collision with nature”? Or are we concerned with the broader issue of civilizational shifts? Is our objective to evolve a comprehensive road map that could provide a blueprint of steps and efforts needed to adapt to the global challenges or to develop new approaches to the problems of human development? One of the challenges we will face is how to avoid the usual dichotomies (technocratic versus humanistic, economic versus developmental, doomsday alarmism versus “let’s make more money out of crises”) in formulating the Mission.

Framework

The problem of resources constraints is obvious and shared by all the participants. Therefore I will leave it for the moment as the least controversial or “dispute charged”, and also because Club of Rome, WAAS and other networks have accumulated a lot of thinking on these matters.

However if we assume that our civilisation is now experiencing a systemic crisis and entering into a new state, we perceive a pressing need for new concepts and new categories adequate to facing this extraordinary situation. We need to develop a new content-based vocabulary for the changing social context, for the new model of social life. Presently we lack appropriate terms and, therefore, are confined to existing models, artificial constructs and familiar concepts, such as the Post-industrial or Information Society, the End of History, the New Barbarianism, the Clash of Civilisations, Globalisation, etc.

Changes in the world’s political, social and legal order, and the transformation of global “modus operandi” also need to be examined. We are currently in a transition period, in which the elements of a new, post-modern world historically coexist with the realities of the modern epoch. The system of international relations and international legal institutions is changing literally before our eyes. Numerous changes are occurring in the models of social, economic, and political activity, in projections of power and authority. The cultural landscape with its relevant “content structures” (democracy and liberalism for examples) is changing simultaneously. Human behavioural patterns and their matching mechanisms are acquiring new systemic qualities.

Other components of change include mutations of the systems, forms and methods of governance, the birth of new and competing organisational structures for which we lack adequate and accepted definitions. Therefore, we are forced to use “content-meaningless” apophatical concepts such as “new organisations”. Or we are compelled to describe the situation using a multitude of prefixes such as “post”, “neo”, “anti”, “para”, “quasi”, and “meta” to point at the phenomenal novelty that unfortunately does not explain anything about their characteristics or about their essence. Or we resort to exotic neologisms such as “geo-economic content analysis”, “non-linear war”, “glocalisation”, “diasporic public spheres”, etc. Before launching practical work, we need to be clear about the frameworks we plan to use.

Goals

The recent “Environmental Leadership Award” was given to the Club of Rome “for decades of warnings of a deteriorating environment and limits to growth”.

Is our goal today to “replicate” the success of the Limits to Growth as a scientific alert of the challenges we face at the new “level of development”? I doubt if this would be sufficient or effective, given the number of writings and documents available on this subject. Clearly the “new product” should add value to the public discourse and go further than that and provide “systemic solutions framework”. We have accumulated a lot of ideas on the economic transformations that are needed and some very promising possible recommendations and scenarios. This might look like the “lowest hanging fruit” intellectually. Unfortunately, picking the lowest hanging fruit sometimes could be counterproductive (let’s not forget Eve’s story). Seriously, I have never been convinced by Marxist materialism which is embedded in the famous dictum, “the being determines the consciousness”.

Today social dynamics are not limited to the economic aspect of the approaching global revolution. Global changes are ultimately determined by a new organisation of individual and social consciousness. These modifications produce a new typology of social activity, political and economic practices, and so on. But first of all, such modifications result in the genesis of a new culture and its active “protagonists”. And here, unfortunately, there has been much less thinking. Therefore, the easy way – a small group drafting followed by a larger group draft upgrading – might not work. We will need first to invent the thinking that is needed and find ways to collect or generate it from within our ranks or outside our networks.

Another aspect of the goals problem is the target. Shall we target decision-makers, legislators, general public, or academia? Clearly the choice will dictate the formats and instruments used. We might be expansive and adapt different elements of the project (scientific, outreach, action) to different targets with matching instruments (also requires clarification and definition).

Suggestions

This list of initiative mapping “musts” is clearly non-exhaustive, purely judgemental and subjective. Therefore I would like to conclude by suggesting several practical (organisational) proposals that could be helpful in the organisation of our work:

As already agreed, the effort should be based on a division of responsibilities. Each network partner has clearly definable competences and “competitive edges”. Therefore, an informal Coordination Committee (CC) will help not only to “structuralize” the work, but also to keep all on the same wavelength. We will need to determine the list of “official sponsor organi­sations” and their representative to the CC.

Each network should propose an outline of the Mission, Ideas, Framework, Themes (both what is available and what is lacking in terms of existing knowledge) and concrete Goals relevant to the work of the CC.

It would be helpful to organise a virtual ideas exchange/data accumulation/discussion platform (members only discussion forum) reflecting on the frameworks selected by the CC. WAAS has a good internal platform of this kind, which I hope could be extended and expanded.

These steps in my opinion could help expedite the preparatory work and provide some structure for project implementation.

The current socio-economic-political paradigm is unsustainable. It is destroying natural, human and social capital. A change of course is essential. Rapid globalization, the accelerated pace of change in the global economic, political, technological, scientific, social and environmental spheres, and the growing complexity of the interactions and inter-dependencies between these spheres present unparalleled challenges to human security, welfare and well-being, which have thus far defied solution by piecemeal, sectoral strategies based on existing concepts and national level policy initiatives. Faulting current approaches has so far proven insufficient to bring about a significant change in thinking and action. But the potential upside of alternative futures has not been sufficiently documented or projected.

A comprehensive strategy is needed to substantiate that practical and effective solutions are possible to successfully address these challenges, backed by quantified research and reliable measures of the desired outcomes. Effective action will require a wide range of expertise and a consortium of organizations with a common vision, shared values and complementary capabilities can achieve far more than the sum of the results that may issue from their separate individual initiative.

The agenda of work for a comprehensive approach to paradigm change intended to encompass all the critical stages of “Leadership in Thought that Leads to Action” should include the following major components:

1. Values:A change in paradigm implies a change in the values that motivate our actions. Values offer essential wisdom regarding the conditions for survival, accomplishment and human fulfilment. An exploration of the values by which global society can overcome the present challenges and convert them into pathways to higher levels of human welfare and well-being is urgently needed. It should be combined with research into the process by which significant changes in civilizational values have been brought about in the past and the possible actions by which a value change can now be consciously effected.

2. Theoretical Framework: A new paradigm needs also to be based on a wider conception and more profound perception of the interdependence of activities, complexity of interactions, global scope and reach, and central role of human beings in determining their own future. Economic growth is a grossly inadequate notion for charting humanity’s future. Without a wider conception of human development and the social processes by which it is effected, we are likely to find ourselves largely confined by existing concepts to prevailing policy options.

3. Deep Drivers: Society evolves. Every paradigm change involves a movement of the society-at-large along a values-pathway driven by deeper social forces pressing to emerge on the surface. These emerging deep drivers provide the energy and effective power for a change in direction. The work of the consortium can immensely benefit from research to identify the underlying forces that are already preparing global society today for a change of paradigm.

4. Comprehensive Strategy: Participating organizations have already identified many essential institutional changes and policy initiatives applicable to different sectors and levels of global society. But thus far these represent separate pieces rather than a clear and coherent road map for the future. As all dimensions of global society contribute to the current dilemma, it is necessary to show how a comprehensive strategy will impact on both individual elements and their mutually dependent interactions and what would be the overall impact of implementation on human security, welfare and well-being.

5. Quantitative Analysis: Quantification is a powerful tool for effective communication. Quantification and modelling can provide compelling evidence capable of altering public opinion and garnering political will. Quantifying the potential benefits of a radical change of course will provide essential documentation to influence academia, public opinion, and decision-makers.

6. New Measures: A new paradigm will require more appropriate measures for monitoring human progress. Without new measures, we will remain trapped within the current framework which regards growth as synonymous with human development. Reconceptualizing progress as a movement toward higher levels of sustainable human welfare and security, rather than simply and crudely as a movement toward higher levels of unsustainable growth and consumption would constitute an important contribution when combined with a comprehensive strategy of how to achieve it and quantitative projections regarding the results.

7. Public Awareness & Support: These elements will only generate significant impact when they are projected to the public-at-large through effective strategies for communication, education, dissemination and debate.

8. Political Will: The goal of new theory, strategy, measures, quantitative analysis and public education must be to effect the functioning of public and private institutions as well as the formulation and implementation of policies by governments, the private sector and other institutions of civil society. Therefore a comprehensive approach must include a strategy for influencing public discourse and political action.

9. Plan on Action: In order to ensure the necessary grounding in reality and to achieve the concentrated intensity required for significant impact, all these elements need to be directed and translated into a plan of ACTION designed to effect real change at the practical level.

10. Goal: A plan that is intended to capture the attention, interest, and imagination of the global public will need to be both convincing and inspiring. Coherent theory, careful analysis and better measures can generate conviction. The inspiration can be generated by a compelling vision such as doubling the welfare of human beings on a sustainable basis.

All these components are essential, complementary and mutually reinforcing. The strategy proposed will be to draw upon the excellent work already done by consortium members and others, reinforcing it by better theory, measures and quantitative research.

Garry JacobsCEO, World Academy of Art & Science;CEO, World University Consortium

OVERVIEW

The World Academy of Art and Science is composed of 730 individual Fellows from diverse cultures, nationalities, and intellectual disciplines, chosen for eminence in art, the natural and social sciences, and the humanities. Established in 1960 by distinguished individuals concerned by the impact of the explosive growth of knowledge, its activities seek to address global issues related to the social consequences and policy implications of knowledge. The Academy serves as a forum for reflective scientists, artists, and scholars to discuss the vital problems of humankind independent of political boundaries or limits, whether spiritual or physical -- a forum where these problems can be discussed objectively, scientifically, globally, and free from vested interests or regional attachments, to arrive at solutions that affirm universal human rights and serve the interests of all humanity. WAAS is founded on faith in the power of original and creative ideas -- Real Ideas with effective power -- to change the world. Its motto is "Leadership in thought that leads to action."

The spirit of the Academy can be expressed in the words of Albert Einstein: "The creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind." Its Fellows share the ambition (as the Founders said in their 1960 Manifesto) "to rediscover the language of mutual understanding," surmounting differences in tradition, language, and social structure which, unless fused by creative imagination and continuous effort, dissolve the latent human commonwealth in contention and conflict.

The aim of the Academy's founders was to function as "an informal WORLD UNIVERSITY at the highest scientific and ethical level, in which deep human understanding and the fullest sense of responsibility will meet."

MISSION

The World Academy of Art and Science is an association of committed individuals drawn from diverse cultures, nationalities, occupations and intellectual pursuits spanning the arts, humanities and sciences, conscious of the profound social consequences and policy implications of knowledge, and united by a common aspiration to address the urgent challenges and emerging opportunities confronting humanity today. Our mission is to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue generative of original ideas and integrated perspectives that comprehend the root causes and effective remedies for our common problems, while furthering those currents of thought and social movement that affirm the value of human dignity and equitable development. The Academy dedicates itself to the pursuit of creative, catalytic ideas that can provide to present and future generations enlightened leadership in thought that leads to effective action.

HISTORY

The idea of founding an international association for exploring major concerns of humanity in a nongovernmental context grew out of many conversations that took place among leading scientists and intellectuals in the years following World War II. Prominent among this group were people such as Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer who had played a part in the development of the atomic bomb and were deeply concerned about how it and other scientific advances might be used – or misused.

This informal project took a major step forward in 1956, when a meeting – The First International Conference on Science and Human Welfare – was held in Washington, D. C. The organizers were two American scientists: Richard Montgomery Field of Princeton, who had worked for many years as chairman of an international committee on the social values of science; and John A. Fleming, former President of the International Council of Scientific Unions. At the end of the conference, participants agreed to take steps toward the formation of a World Academy, and elected an International Preparatory Committee for that purpose. Its members were: (from France) Pierre Chouard, George Laclavére and G. Le Lionnaise; (from the United Kingdom) Ritchie Calder, H. Munro Fox and Joseph Needham; and (from the United States) Robert Oppenheimer.

The Academy was formally founded (and its first officers elected) in 1960. They were: as President, Lord John Boyd Orr of Scotland; as Vice Presidents, Hermann Joseph Muller of the United States and Hugo Ostvald of Sweden; and, as Secretary General, Hugo Boyko of Israel.

Advisors to the Board

PARTNERS

HOW TO DONATE TO THE ACADEMY

The World Academy is incorporated in the State of California and Fellows elected from 86 different countries. WAAS is recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a tax exempt private foundation under section 501(c)(3).

CADMUS JOURNAL

Cadmus is a journal for fresh thinking and new perspectives that integrate knowledge from all fields of science, art and humanities to address real-life issues, inform policy and decision-making, and enhance our collective response to the challenges and opportunities facing the world today.

ERUDITIO E-JOURNAL

Eruditio is the electronic journal of the World Academy of Art & Science. The vision of the Journal complements and enhances the World Academy's focus on global perspectives in the generation of knowledge from all fields of legitimate inquiry.

The Journal also mirrors the World Academy's specific focus and mandate which is to consider the social consequences and policy implications of knowledge in the broadest sense. It is a multidisciplinary forum focused on the social consequences and policy implications of all forms of knowledge on a global basis.

PAPERS BY CATEGORY

BOOKS

The Security & Sustainability Guide

A 250-page “Interim Draft” PDF of The S&S Guide, a project of the World Academy of Art & Science, will be available for limited distribution free of charge. It reflects the critical fact that sustainability and security are both essential and can only be achieved in concert. The Guide is incomplete, but the compilers believe that, even in its current state, many will find it useful for illuminating many of the most serious problems facing humanity under the broad, overlapping categories of “Security” (weapons proliferation, terrorism, cyber-attacks, economic and food insecurity, human rights, peacemaking, crime and corruption, inadequate infrastructure, etc.) and “Sustainability” (climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, energy, agriculture, population growth, cities, oceans, forests, vulnerability to disasters, green economics and nance, etc.)

Democracy is under siege. Traditional bastions of liberal democracy are faltering. Young democracies are reverting to their authoritarian pasts. Populism, corporatization of the media, fake news, retreat from globalism, oligarchy, corruption and other perils are undermining fairness, effectiveness and truthfulness. Just when it appeared that the world was converging on a universal set of values and standards for governance at the national and international level, fundamental questions are being raised regarding the viability and sustainability of democratic institutions. Recent events raise fundamental questions regarding the institutions of governance and also about the underlying social, psychological, cultural and evolutionary processes that determine how these institutions function.

Is democracy in its current form really the most viable and effective system of governance? Are human beings sufficiently rational and selfless to govern themselves justly and effectively? Is the future of democracy at the national level compatible with the persistence of non-democratic institutions at the international level? By what process has the distribution of social power shifted from army, monarchy, aristocracy to democracy and how is that process likely to evolve further in future? To what extent are the institutional problems confronting democracy today reflections of underlying social, psychological and cultural factors and processes? What proven and potential safeguards and remedies are available to address the failures and insufficiencies of contemporary democracies? Is democracy the best possible system or merely a stage in the evolution of governance toward something more stable, an effective and equitable system?

Mind is humanity's highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is the master tool that we use to comprehend the present, remember the past, and anticipate and plan for the future. From the act of striking two flints together to create fire to combining strings of 1s and 0s to design the code for supercomputers, mind has enabled humanity to create remarkable technologies and organized global institutions. The mind is the unifying foundation on which humanity’s entire social evolution is based. To understand this vital instrument better, the World Academy of Art & Science and World University Consortium have launched a ground-breaking project to explore Mind, Thinking and Creativity. A greater understanding of the nature of mind, its ways of knowing, the limits to thinking and rationality, mind's untapped potential, the workings of creativity and genius are essential for addressing the challenges confronting humanity today.

In April 2016 WAAS and WUC, along with partnering organizations IACP, IUC, DHUC, and MSS organized a four-day roundtable on Mind, Thinking and Creativity 2016 at Dubrovnik, Croatia for to explore fundamental questions. The meeting was attended by experts from different fields of natural and social science, including medicine, neuroscience, engineering, psychology, sociology, economics, law, and philosophy. Video recordings, presentations and papers for the roundtable are available here. The enthusiastic interest generated by the Dubrovnik meeting spurred efforts of WAAS and the World University Consortium to commence work on a on-line course on this subject which is now underway. A report on last year's meeting including videos and presentations was included in the Academy's July 2016 newsletter.

Roundtable 2 -- November 2017 at Dubrovnik

The second roundtable on Mind, Thinking & Creativity is being conducted by the World University Consortium, the World Academy of Art & Science, the Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and the Inter-University Centre from November 6-8, 2017 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Human-Centered Economics will be conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from Feb 1-Feb 3,2017 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The multidimensional challenges confronting humanity today are human-made and can be changed by a change in thought and action. Contemporary economic thought is built on a mind-frame that originated prior to the Industrial Revolution when scarcity of goods in a world of abundant resources was the primary concern, economic growth was considered synonymous with human welfare, and impact of humanity on the environment was completely ignored. Without challenging obvious flaws in existing theory, it will be not be possible to significantly alter current policies and practices.

The overall aim of the course is to (a) demonstrate why mainstream neo-classical economic theory is inappropriate for dealing with the global challenges of the c.21st, and (b) explore alternative approaches for achieving ecologically sustainable, human-centered development and welfare for all.

This course will present the findings of a five year research program of the World Academy of Art & Science and the on-going work of the New Economic Theory working group. It will harness the best available ideas and practices on human-centred, sustainable economy to create informative, authoritative and compelling educational and communication tools with the power to challenge and alter university level education in Economics, public policy, business decisions, media coverage and general public opinion regarding how the world economy should and can work for the betterment of all humanity.

A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Social Power, Empowerment & Social Evolution will be conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from Oct 31-Nov 4, 2016 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Humanity lives in a time of unprecedented capacity for accomplishment in every field of social life. Never before have we possessed power of this magnitude for good or for evil. Never before has power been so widely distributed within society. Democracy, law, human rights, science, technology, education and many other forms of social organization have generated immense power. Society governs the possession and exercise of this power through formal structures and institutions, such as law and human rights, as well as through both legitimate and extra-legal informal mechanisms including status, wealth, popularity, political influence and corruption. The distribution of power in its various forms powerfully impacts on the functioning of the economy, political system, educational, scientific, religious and and other social institutions, and on the overall productivity, strength, integrity, harmony and welfare of society. This transdisciplinary course will explore the sources, expressions, determinants and consequences of the creation, distribution and exercise of social power in its various expressions in politics, economy, society and culture and its consequences for the evolution of society as a whole.

Mind is humanity’s highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is an instrument with remarkable capabilities and characteristic limitations. It is ironic that we invest so little time in education and scientific endeavor trying to understand the nature of mental knowledge and the character of the mental processes by which we arrive at it. The objective of this course is to arrive at an understanding of the inherent limits to rationality and mental ways of knowing, as well as the extraordinary creative and intuitive processes by which mind transcends those limitations and tends toward genius.

Thinking is the activity by which mind associates, organizes, coordinates and integrates information, thoughts and ideas. Creative thinking is the process by which mind extends the boundaries of existing thought and knowledge to connect, reconcile and unify previously unconnected or contradictory perspectives. This course will explore the characteristics of mental knowledge and thought processes, types of thinking, the character of rational thought, the mental and social construction of knowledge, deep thinking, creativity and genius. Rather than focus on abstract philosophical concepts, it will apply this knowledge to understand both the sources of humanity’s prolific mental creativity, the characteristic problems it confronts due to irresolvable conflicts and contradictions between mental perspectives, and their resolution in different fields of natural and social science, public policy, collective and individual behavior.

A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Future Education was conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from September 21-23, 2015 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Education is our best hope for a better future. Emergence of a new paradigm in education can radically abridge the time required for humanity to address critical issues related to economy, governance, ecology and life-style. Education is the best known instrument for ensuring universal human rights, promoting democracy, enhancing productivity and protecting the environment.There is urgent need to evolve a new paradigm in education appropriate to the needs of the 21st century. Closing the gap between social needs and educational capabilities is essential for addressing pressing challenges confronting humanity today. A review of education today makes evident that there is enormous scope for improving and developing the educational system. Whatever its current limitations in terms of inadequate coverage, quality and content, the means and potential exist for dramatically enhancing humanity’s individual and collective performance in virtually all spheres of our social existence by realistic, achievable improvements in education. We need a new paradigm in education capable of more fully and effectively developing the latent capacities of our youth.

A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Essence of Effective Leadership was conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from March 31 to April 3, 2015 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

This course explored the characteristics common to leaders in business, politics, civil society, science, arts, professions and education and examined methods by which these characteristics can be consciously developed by individuals. The presentations consist of theory, practical strategies, and a wide range of examples drawn from biography, history, management, and literature from movies illustrating the principles under discussion. Apart from the presentations, our faculty interacted with participants to bring home the theoretical significance and practical relevance of the material.

The Individual is the catalyst of all social progress, the source of creativity, innovation, new ideas and new initiatives. The individual is the genetic source of human diversity. The entrepreneur, inventor, social reformer, revolutionary leader, original thinker and creative artist are a few of individuality's expressions. Yet how little we understand about the characteristics of true individuality, the ways in which it expresses, the means for developing it, and the means for realizing real individuality in one’s own life.

History demonstrates that individuals have the power to change the world. This course explored the relationship between personality and accomplishment. It examined the role of Individuality and Values in personal achievement, growth of personality and social progress drawing on evidence from Management Science, History, Psychology and Literature. It explored the relationship between creative individuals and society searching for insights into the principles and process that govern successful human initiatives and their consequences in various fields of life.

The course was intended for both students and practitioners in all fields interested in advancing theoretical understanding and practical approaches to promote the development of entrepreneurship, individuality, creativity, original thinking and other forms of social innovation. It explored the role of the individual in development of society, elucidated the characteristics of true individuals, the source of their amazing power for accomplishment and the process by which they act as catalysts of social innovation. While the presentation was academic, the objective was to impart original insights and practical knowledge for personal growth and individuation.

Today humanity is confronted by a plethora of serious challenges – political, economic, legal, social, cultural, psychological and ecological. These challenges are complex, interrelated, and global in reach. They are a reflection of the inadequacy of current institutions and policies and at a deeper level the inadequacy of current knowledge. They defy comprehension and resolution based on the prevailing principles of social science. The specialized knowledge developed by separate disciplines is inadequate to deal with the increasingly complex interdependencies of the real world. Knowledge needs to evolve to keep pace with the evolution of society.

The evolution of a complex, highly integrated global society necessitates the development of a more comprehensive and integrated science of society. The division into various specialized fields has been a useful mental strategy for the development of the social sciences, leading to significant advances in all fields – knowledge which needs to be preserved and enhanced by future developments. Yet it is increasingly evident that a more comprehensive and integrated approach is now required. As society evolves, its different functions develop greater complexity. At the same time they become more closely and complexly interlinked and interdependent on one another. Economy today is highly dependent on the political system and laws governing the distribution and enforcement of power in society, legal concepts regarding ownership of property and human rights, public institutions responsible for the creation and management of money, rules for commerce between nations, public policies influencing income and wealth distribution, processes that determine collective decision-making, public investment in education and training, and social expectations regarding economy and the future, etc. A recent announcement by the White House of an ‘intention’ to examine measures to discourage shifting of US firms to tax havens overseas resulted in a 10% fall in market value for several large firms.

Strategic Planning Committee Program Framework

Being a world academy composed of members drawn from the arts, social and physical sciences, humanities, business, public administration and civil society poses fundamental questions. How can WAAS distinguish itself from other national and regional academies? Is there really a common meeting point between art and science? Is there a unique contribution that WAAS can make to the world’s knowledge?

At the New Delhi General Assembly, Fellows explored facets of a new program framework developed by the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) which seeks to answer these questions in the affirmative. Rather than distinguish itself by specializing on a particular set of disciplines, issues or geographic area, the framework is an attempt to formulate a comprehensive approach and integrated perspective of knowledge inclusive of all disciplinary perspectives and applicable to social problems and opporunities in all fields.

The core of the framework is a human-centered conception of what constitutes reliable knowing, a question posed to the SPC by Ruben Nelson. In his presentation to the GA, Garry Jacobs explained how this conception applies to WAAS’s projects on new economic theory, individuality and limits to rationality. Pushpa Bhargava pointed out that a human centered perspective naturally incorporates ecology, since the survival and full development of humanity depends on its capacity to evolve in harmony with the environment.

New Paradigm Program

Scope: The world confronts multiple crises, each of which resists current efforts at resolution and appears intractable. The environmental crisis of climate change occupied the center stage in the mid-2000s. Fears of nuclear weapons proliferation, which had subsided into complacency in the years following the end of the Cold War, suddenly surfaced with renewed intensity when Korea tested nuclear weapons and long range missiles and news surfaced of Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program in 2007.

Then the subprime mortgage crisis exploded in late 2008, spreading havoc through financial markets across the world. It was followed quickly by a sudden and substantial slowing of economic growth in OECD countries, rising levels of unemployment and most recently a crisis of excessive government debt.

In spite of the enormous attention being given to each of these issues by specialists nationally and internationally, progress on all fronts appears to be nearly at a standstill or at least far too slow to meet pressing human concerns. The times we live in are a Wild West of globalization and the unbridled, unregulated expansion of international activities threatens to destabilize and undermine the remarkable progress of the previous five decades.

This project is predicated on the assumption that each of these problems defies solution because they all represent problems that transcend the sovereign powers of the nation-state. None of them can be fully and satisfactorily addressed by nation-states acting individually. All are symptoms of the evolution of world society to a stage where concerted and coordinated global action is required to meet the collective needs of humanity for peace, security, financial stability, economic welfare and sustainable development. This project has been conceived to address the underlying and interrelated issues that all these challenges pose to global governance.

World University Consortium

The mission of World University Consortium is to evolve and promote development of accessible, affordable, quality higher education worldwide based on a human-centered approach that shifts the emphasis from specialized expertise to contextualized knowledge within a trans-disciplinary conceptual framework reflecting the complexity and integration of the real world, from teaching mastery of a field of knowledge to learning that enhances the capacity of students to think and discover knowledge for themselves, from theoretical mastery to acquisition of knowledge, skills and values relevant to each individual’s personal development and career – an educational system better suited to develop the full potentials of social personality and individuality for productive engagement, social welfare and psychological well-being. The objectives are:

Identify global best practices and develop effective global models and strategies to improve accessibility, affordability, quality, innovation and relevance in higher education appropriate to the needs of the 21st century.

Develop innovative, open learning systems and more effective models that extend the reach of quality higher education to people of all age groups globally.

Explore new models of online and hybrid delivery systems designed to facilitate learning through teacher-student and student-student interaction.

Enhance the learning process through research, development and application of advanced instruments for measurement and evaluation of educational processes.

NEW ECONOMIC THEORY

A multidisciplinary group from the World Academy of Art & Science and the Club of Rome are leading a quest for a new human-centered theory of economics that reflects recent changes resulting from the emergence of a service-based economy, globalization, rising social aspirations and changing values, and is integrated with political, social, ecological, technological, and cultural factors from which it is inseparable.

TRANS-DISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE ON MIND, THINKING AND CREATIVITY

Mind is humanity’s highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is an instrument with remarkable capabilities and characteristic limitations. It is ironic that we invest so little time in education and scientific endeavor trying to understand the nature of mental knowledge and the character of the mental processes by which we arrive at it.

The objective of this project is to arrive at an understanding of the inherent limits to rationality and mental ways of knowing, as well as the extraordinary creative and intuitive processes by which mind transcends those limitations and tends toward genius.

PROGRAM ON GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT CHALLENGE

Access to employment is the most essential requirement for providing economic security to the world’s burgeoning population.

This interdisciplinary dialogue explores theoretical and practical aspects of the global employment challenge, including its demographic, economic, legal, political, psychological dimensions as well as linkages with the international financial crisis, social stability, and terrorism.

EVOLUTION OF INDIVIDUALITY

Individuality is the crown of human evolution and the catalyst for social progress, yet there are very different conceptions of what constitutes true individuality, the relationship between the individual and society, and whether humanity is inevitably evolving toward higher levels of individuality.

This project will explore the essential nature of individuality, the social and cultural factors that foster it, its role in social development, its myriad expressions in the original thinker, creative artist, political leader, entrepreneur, inventor and social innovator, and the means available to society to foster it.

GLOBAL RULE OF LAW

The evolution of international law and human rights represent crucial threads in the progressive development of global rule of law.

This project will explore the relationship between the social, political and legal dimensions of global rule of law in an effort to frame the boundaries of a wider approach to the evolution of global governance. Emphasis will be place to re-examining the concept of national sovereignty and the common rights of humanity in an increasingly globalized world.

NEW SCIENCES

In 2013 WAAS launched a project to explore important developments in recently emerging fields of science, with e-conferences on the Science of Networks and the Science of Complexity. The project involves an application of concepts and tools from the new sciences relevant to address the global challenges confronting humanity today and to the evolution of a transdisciplinary science of society.

PROGRAM ON ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The devastating consequences of nuclear war and the potential destructive applications of science and technology were paramount concerns among Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Robert Oppenheimer, Joseph Rotblat and others which led to the founding of the World Academy in 1960.

Nuclear disarmament is a sine qua non for effectively addressing other issues of global important – terrorism, financial stability, unemployment, poverty, climate change, democratization of the UN and other aspects of global governance. In recent years, the Academy has conducted numerous conferences, seminars and workshops and collaborating with other organizations in an effort to promote concrete steps toward immediate and total global nuclear disarmament.

The Security & Sustainability Guide

A 250-page “Interim Draft” PDF of The S&S Guide, a project of the World Academy of Art & Science, will be available for limited distribution free of charge. It reflects the critical fact that sustainability and security are both essential and can only be achieved in concert. The Guide is incomplete, but the compilers believe that, even in its current state, many will find it useful for illuminating many of the most serious problems facing humanity under the broad, overlapping categories of “Security” (weapons proliferation, terrorism, cyber-attacks, economic and food insecurity, human rights, peacemaking, crime and corruption, inadequate infrastructure, etc.) and “Sustainability” (climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, energy, agriculture, population growth, cities, oceans, forests, vulnerability to disasters, green economics and nance, etc.)